A rock festival company will bid to bring its controversial HiFi event back to Northumberland -despite a poor turnout last weekend.

Angel Music Company has signed a three-year contract with landowner Sir Hugh Blackett, but still needs permission from Castle Morpeth Borough Council to hold the event again at Wallhouses Farm, near Matfen.

The first HiFi rockfest, last month, was attended by less than half of the 25,000 music fans who were expected to turn up. Police estimated only 7,500 people attended.

But Peter Haywood, managing director of AMG, said: "We have had a lot of great feedback from the event and we are committed to doing it all again next year."

James Algate, HiFi organiser, said: "Year one can always be problematic, as local residents and services can fear the worst. Numbers weren't as high as we had hoped, with around 12,000 there, but we still feel it is a great start."

Members of the Residents Against HiFi group say they will be doing all that they can to stop it from coming back to Matfen.

Gary Sanderson, 39, of Laker Hall, said: "Even though this event seemed a complete flop to me, I suspected AMG would come back next year."

He added: "We have to use that time to get together a strong case against a future festival. Nothing I saw at this year's event allayed my concerns."

AMG says a small number of objectors have had a change of heart after the festival. They include Christine Porteous, who lives at Halton Shields, about a mile from Wallhouses Farm.

She said: "We live very near to the site and there was no noise disturbance and the roads seemed quieter than normal. The event was well managed and the crowds were ever so friendly."

Objectors to the festival also included Northumbria Police, who fought AMG's bid for a licence from Castle Morpeth Borough Council.

After the licence was granted AMG refused to make a significant contribution to the estimated £100,000 cost of policing the festival.

But Chief Supt Graham Pears said the company has now agreed, after lengthy negotiations and the threat of court action, to pay something towards to policing costs, although he would not say how much.

During the festival police made around 50 arrests and a 14-year-old boy was taken to Newcastle General Hospital suffering from the effects of drugs. He has since been released. AMG says it will be investigating how the boy got onto the site, where only people aged 16 and over were allowed.